Judge Blocks Louisiana Social Media Parental Consent Law
A federal judge has issued an injunction blocking enforcement of a Louisiana law that would have required social platforms to verify users’ ages, and prohibited platforms from allowing minors under 16 to create or maintain accounts without parental permission.
In a 93-page ruling issued this week, U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles in the Middle District of Louisiana found that the law, the Secure Online Child Interaction and Age Limitation Act, violates the First Amendment.
“Minors are entitled to a significant measure of First Amendment protection,” deGravelles wrote, quoting from a 1982 Supreme Court ruling.
He added that the Supreme Court said in a 2011 decision that the government’s power to protect children “does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.”
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